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I've been spending a lot of time working on plans for the election night results programme on LBC, which I am presenting. Nick Ferrari gets LBC's coverage underway at 10pm with a preview of the night to come, and I take over with Gaby Hinsliff, at midnight and will be broadcasting right through till 6am, when Nick Ferrari returns with his breakfast programme.
Those of you who listened to my programmes last year on PlayRadio for the County Council and European Elections will know that I do not like to have a script! I also like to involve as many people in the programme as possible, and that's where you come in. Although we'll have access to LBC and Sky's election count network, and will be taking live reports, I want our programme to be very different from the normal election night fayre.
Like last year, I'd like to involve bloggers, tweeters, blog readers and citizen journalists in the programme so we can get the very latest information, gossip and rumour as quickly as possible, and ensure that we get the results - or indications of results - quicker than the BBC or the others.
So if you'd like to play a part, if you'd like to report from a Count in an interesting seat, email me and nearer the time we'll let you know how you can feed information into us, or even come on the air.
The programme is being pitched to appeal to politicial afficionados as well as the LBC general listener. We're not going to dumb down - there won't be anyone in the studio dressed up as a cowboy and we won't have fancy graphics. We also won't have a formal script. We're relying on our political knowledge, interpretation and excellent guests to bring you the kind of election night programme you won't get elsewhere. I'm delighted Gaby Hinsliff has agreed to co-host - she's got fantastic contacts, is a brilliant journalist and will bring a huge amount to the evening.
If you have ideas about what you'd like to see us do in the programme, feel free to let me know.
Finally, we intend to have what we're calling a BAND OF BLOGGERS with us, in the studio and LBC newsroom on the night. They will be trawling blogs and the internet for the very latest news and comment, and will all appear on air from time to time.
Also, in case you think you can only listen to LBC in London, think again. As well as being on 97.3FM in London, it's on DAB in a lot of the country, on Sky Channel 0124 and you can also listen live throughout the world via the LBC website.
We'll also be using @lbc973 on twitter.
